The chairman of Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Shah Geelani on 18 April claimed that the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, had sent emissaries to him seeking help to resolve the Kashmir issue, but he had rejected the overture. “On March 22, two men came to meet me. They were our Pandit brothers, who sought my help in resolving the Kashmir dispute,” Geelani said but did not identify the men. He claimed the men asked him if he wished to talk to Modi.
Geelani said he rejected the proposal and told them that Modi was an RSS man and followed the same ideology, and everyone was aware of the RSS and the Kashmir policy of the BJP, which Modi represented. “I told the men about Modi’s role as chief minister during the 2002 Gujarat riots and how 3,000 Muslims were massacred. I also conveyed to them that Modi can never show any softness or seriousness for a resolution of Kashmir,’’ he said. BJP however rubbished Geelani’s claim, calling ‘Modi emissary talk’ as ‘false and mischievous’.